The 1 Reason You Should Consider Gold Stocks Today

With fear and uncertainty lurking in the headlines nearly every day, it’s no wonder more investors are turning to gold — even though gold has underperformed the market over the past 20 years. In that period, the S&P 500 has soared more than 280%, while gold has climbed only 165%. It’s underperforming but still rising.

However, looking to the yellow metal doesn’t just equate to buying some bullion or investing in a gold miner. Because royalty and streaming companies — including Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) and Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) — offer a gold-investment opportunity that’s insulated from the volatility in the price of gold to some degree, there’s good reason to consider them for your portfolio.

Let’s get grounded
You read it in the news and hear it from the TV: Gold jumped today; gold dropped today. But what does that mean? Before we go any further, we should ground ourselves in some basics. When you hear about movements in the price of gold, it’s a reference to the metal’s spot price. Essentially, it’s how much people are currently willing to pay for the metal right now. Attempting to benefit from the upward movement — and mitigating the risk of market volatility — you can buy gold on the commodities market, or you can buy gold bars and even gold coins.